logo
‘Extraordinary' fossil reveals the oldest ant species known to science

‘Extraordinary' fossil reveals the oldest ant species known to science

Ammon26-04-2025
Ammon News - An almost overlooked fossil discovered in a Brazilian museum collection has revealed the oldest ant specimen known to science, according to new research.The prehistoric ant lived among dinosaurs 113 million years ago — several millennia before previously found ants — and had an unusual way to kill its prey. Anderson Lepeco, a researcher at the Museum of Zoology of the University of São Paulo, said he came across the 'extraordinary' specimen in September 2024 while examining a fossil collection housed at the Museum of Zoology of the University of São Paulo.The museum has one of the world's largest collections of fossilized insects and contains specimens from northeastern Brazil's Crato Formation, a geological deposit renowned for its exceptional fossil preservation.Preserved in limestone, the newly described extinct insect is what's known as a hell ant, a member of a subfamily called Haidomyrmecinae that lived during the Cretaceous period between 66 million and 45 million years ago and is not related to any ant alive today, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology. The fossil species, which has been named Vulcanidris cratensis, had scythe-like jaws that it likely used to pin or impale prey.'I was just shocked to see that weird projection in front of this (insect's) head,' Lepeco, the study's lead author, said. 'Other hell ants have been described with odd mandibles, but always as amber specimens.'It's rare to find insects preserved in rock. Other hell ants from the Cretaceous have been found entombed in amber from France and Myanmar but they date back to around 99 million years ago. That a hell ant lived before that in what's now Brazil means ants were already widely distributed across the planet at an early point in their evolution, the study authors noted.
The discovery sheds light on how ants evolved during the early Cretaceous, a time of significant change. It also offers some insight into unusual features in ant species of this period that didn't survive the mass extinction that ended the dinosaur era, the researchers said. CNN
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

NASA reports plane-sized asteroid nearing earth
NASA reports plane-sized asteroid nearing earth

Ammon

time2 days ago

  • Ammon

NASA reports plane-sized asteroid nearing earth

Ammon News - NASA is monitoring an airplane-sized asteroid that is expected to zoom past the Earth on July 28 at a zippy 46,908 miles per hour. The space rock—known as 2025 OW—is estimated to be about 210 feet across and will make its closest approach to our next Monday, at a distance of around 393,000 miles, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). But 2025 OW isn't the only asteroid approaching us in the coming days. NASA is also tracking another airplane-sized space rock known as 2025 OX, which is estimated to be about 110 feet across, and will fly past the Earth on July 26 at a distance of 2,810,000 miles. Three more aircraft-sized space rocks are also expected to pass by Earth in the next few weeks. On July 28, asteroid 2018 BE5 will make its closest approach at a distance of just 2,580,000 miles; 2025 OR will pass within 3,040,000 miles on July 31; and, next month, 2019 CO1 will get within 4,240,000 miles of our home. According to NASA, asteroids are inactive bodies made of all the rocky, dusty and metallic materials left behind from the formation of our solar system. They are mainly concentrated within the main asteroid belt, orbiting around the sun between the paths of Mars and Jupiter, though some may end up in the inner solar system. Asteroids of various sizes can pose different levels of threat to our planet. Small ones around 30 feet impact Earth about once in a decade, causing a very bright fireball, and a strong sonic boom. They may sometimes also break nearby windows. Space rocks measuring 160 feet and over can cause local devastation and leave a crater. Thankfully, they only impact Earth about in 1,000 years. Depending on the impact location, larger space rocks—those that measure in at over 500 feet across—can cause deaths across populated metro areas and states, says NASA. Fortunately, they only hit the Earth around every 20,000 years.

Google clinches milestone gold at global math competition, while OpenAI also claims win
Google clinches milestone gold at global math competition, while OpenAI also claims win

Ammon

time3 days ago

  • Ammon

Google clinches milestone gold at global math competition, while OpenAI also claims win

Ammon News - Alphabet's Google and OpenAI said their artificial-intelligence models won gold medals at a global mathematics competition, signaling a breakthrough in math capabilities in the race to build systems that can rival human intelligence. The results marked the first time that AI systems crossed the gold-medal scoring threshold at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) for high-school students. Both companies' models solved five out of six problems, achieving the result using general-purpose "reasoning" models that processed mathematical concepts using natural language, in contrast to the previous approaches used by AI firms. While Google DeepMind worked with the IMO to have their models graded and certified by the committee, OpenAI did not officially enter the competition. The startup revealed their models have achieved a gold medal-worthy score on this year's questions on Saturday, citing grades by three external IMO medalists. The achievement suggests AI is less than a year away from being used by mathematicians to crack unsolved research problems at the frontier of the field, according to Junehyuk Jung, a math professor at Brown University and visiting researcher in Google's DeepMind AI unit. Reuters

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store